On This Day / December 16, 1920
Go BackReproduced with permission from The Irish News.
19201216
Reference Date
19201216
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Summary: On This Day – 16th December 1920, the Lords passed the Government of Ireland Bill, repealing all-Ireland Home Rule. The Irish News insisted partition had already been rejected “with scorn” by nationalists and Sinn Féin. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Partition Rejected with Scorn | On This Day – 16th December 1920
Editorial
A GOVERNMENT of Ireland Bill – colloquially termed ‘The Home Rule Bill’ by its authors – was read a third time in the House of Lords last night.
It was the third Government of Ireland Bill to which the members of the Lords had devoted their attention and energies.
Mr Gladstone’s first measure (1886) was rejected by the Commons. His second Bill (1893) was cast forth by the House of Lords – the majority against it being ten to one.
They rejected the third Bill in 1912 and again in 1913: it was passed without reference to them under the Parliament Act [1911] and duly signed by the King.
But the Lords passed the Third Reading of the Government of Ireland Bill (1920) without a pang last night; its vital provision was a single clause repealing the [All-Ireland] Home Rule Act which became law in 1914.
Still, the measure finally sanctioned by the Lords was a Government of Ireland Bill.
Its passing should have been regarded as an event of vast, even momentous, importance in this country.
Did 44 individuals out of 4,100,000 in Ireland give an instant’s thought last night to the proceedings of the British House of Lords?
Will as many – apart from the Ascendancy group in Belfast – give a second thought to the news that the Bill only awaits …the King’s signature to take its place on the Statute Book?
The masses of the Irish people are indifferent but theirs is not a mere passive indifference – it is the indifference of supreme contempt.
They had rejected the Partition Bill with scorn even before it had been drafted. They reject it now.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: As Tim McCarthy, the Irish News editor, stressed, the 1920 Act was rejected by Sinn Fein, the Nationalists and the isolated Southern Unionists while Craig and Carson abstained on its second reading.
However, its speedy implementation for the six counties in 1921 ensured that Sinn Féin were faced with a functioning Unionist government when the Treaty negotiations began. Hopes of undoing partition would prove elusive.)
Unionists Warn Government
A SPECIALLY convened meeting of the Sub-Committee of the Ulster Unionist Council, appointed to deal with the Home Rule Bill states: ‘That the [UUC] can only accept the Home Rule Bill in the form in which it left the House of Commons and refuses to agree with amendments by the Lords which have the effect of – 1) setting up a Senate; 2) depriving Northern Ireland of its independent judiciary and 3) of extending the PR method of voting in elections to six years.’
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: Craig ensured that the 1920 Act was shaped to ensure permanent Unionist ascendancy.)
On This Day – 16th December 1920
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
19201216
Reference Date
19201216
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Summary: On This Day – 16th December 1920, the Lords passed the Government of Ireland Bill, repealing all-Ireland Home Rule. The Irish News insisted partition had already been rejected “with scorn” by nationalists and Sinn Féin. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Partition Rejected with Scorn | On This Day – 16th December 1920
Editorial
A GOVERNMENT of Ireland Bill – colloquially termed ‘The Home Rule Bill’ by its authors – was read a third time in the House of Lords last night.
It was the third Government of Ireland Bill to which the members of the Lords had devoted their attention and energies.
Mr Gladstone’s first measure (1886) was rejected by the Commons. His second Bill (1893) was cast forth by the House of Lords – the majority against it being ten to one.
They rejected the third Bill in 1912 and again in 1913: it was passed without reference to them under the Parliament Act [1911] and duly signed by the King.
But the Lords passed the Third Reading of the Government of Ireland Bill (1920) without a pang last night; its vital provision was a single clause repealing the [All-Ireland] Home Rule Act which became law in 1914.
Still, the measure finally sanctioned by the Lords was a Government of Ireland Bill.
Its passing should have been regarded as an event of vast, even momentous, importance in this country.
Did 44 individuals out of 4,100,000 in Ireland give an instant’s thought last night to the proceedings of the British House of Lords?
Will as many – apart from the Ascendancy group in Belfast – give a second thought to the news that the Bill only awaits …the King’s signature to take its place on the Statute Book?
The masses of the Irish people are indifferent but theirs is not a mere passive indifference – it is the indifference of supreme contempt.
They had rejected the Partition Bill with scorn even before it had been drafted. They reject it now.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: As Tim McCarthy, the Irish News editor, stressed, the 1920 Act was rejected by Sinn Fein, the Nationalists and the isolated Southern Unionists while Craig and Carson abstained on its second reading.
However, its speedy implementation for the six counties in 1921 ensured that Sinn Féin were faced with a functioning Unionist government when the Treaty negotiations began. Hopes of undoing partition would prove elusive.)
Unionists Warn Government
A SPECIALLY convened meeting of the Sub-Committee of the Ulster Unionist Council, appointed to deal with the Home Rule Bill states: ‘That the [UUC] can only accept the Home Rule Bill in the form in which it left the House of Commons and refuses to agree with amendments by the Lords which have the effect of – 1) setting up a Senate; 2) depriving Northern Ireland of its independent judiciary and 3) of extending the PR method of voting in elections to six years.’
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: Craig ensured that the 1920 Act was shaped to ensure permanent Unionist ascendancy.)
On This Day – 16th December 1920
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
19201216
Reference Date
December 16, 2020
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice *
Summary: On This Day – 16th December 1920, the Lords passed the Government of Ireland Bill, repealing all-Ireland Home Rule. The Irish News insisted partition had already been rejected “with scorn” by nationalists and Sinn Féin. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Partition Rejected with Scorn | On This Day – 16th December 1920
Editorial
A GOVERNMENT of Ireland Bill – colloquially termed ‘The Home Rule Bill’ by its authors – was read a third time in the House of Lords last night.
It was the third Government of Ireland Bill to which the members of the Lords had devoted their attention and energies.
Mr Gladstone’s first measure (1886) was rejected by the Commons. His second Bill (1893) was cast forth by the House of Lords – the majority against it being ten to one.
They rejected the third Bill in 1912 and again in 1913: it was passed without reference to them under the Parliament Act [1911] and duly signed by the King.
But the Lords passed the Third Reading of the Government of Ireland Bill (1920) without a pang last night; its vital provision was a single clause repealing the [All-Ireland] Home Rule Act which became law in 1914.
Still, the measure finally sanctioned by the Lords was a Government of Ireland Bill.
Its passing should have been regarded as an event of vast, even momentous, importance in this country.
Did 44 individuals out of 4,100,000 in Ireland give an instant’s thought last night to the proceedings of the British House of Lords?
Will as many – apart from the Ascendancy group in Belfast – give a second thought to the news that the Bill only awaits …the King’s signature to take its place on the Statute Book?
The masses of the Irish people are indifferent but theirs is not a mere passive indifference – it is the indifference of supreme contempt.
They had rejected the Partition Bill with scorn even before it had been drafted. They reject it now.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: As Tim McCarthy, the Irish News editor, stressed, the 1920 Act was rejected by Sinn Fein, the Nationalists and the isolated Southern Unionists while Craig and Carson abstained on its second reading.
However, its speedy implementation for the six counties in 1921 ensured that Sinn Féin were faced with a functioning Unionist government when the Treaty negotiations began. Hopes of undoing partition would prove elusive.)
Unionists Warn Government
A SPECIALLY convened meeting of the Sub-Committee of the Ulster Unionist Council, appointed to deal with the Home Rule Bill states: ‘That the [UUC] can only accept the Home Rule Bill in the form in which it left the House of Commons and refuses to agree with amendments by the Lords which have the effect of – 1) setting up a Senate; 2) depriving Northern Ireland of its independent judiciary and 3) of extending the PR method of voting in elections to six years.’
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: Craig ensured that the 1920 Act was shaped to ensure permanent Unionist ascendancy.)
On This Day – 16th December 1920
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
On This Day is a daily column in the Irish News looking back either 50 or 100 years. The column was compiled by Dr Éamon Phoenix from the mid 1980s until autumn, 2022. The Foundation is very grateful to the Irish News for giving permission to reproduce Eamon’s columns. Funding gratefully received from Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs and the Magill Trust.
* The Foundation has worked hard to recreate Eamon’s distinctive voice through AI. Since this is an emerging technology, occasional imperfections may be audible.